Empathy [Josh Dun - Twenty One Pilots]

The road between school and home wasn't that long when Josh wasn't walking. Yet, he always managed to get lost in his own mind during the short 10 minutes drive. But for once, the boy smiled: his thoughts weren't as dark as they were before. His brows weren't knit together, his face was relaxed, and overall, he add to admit to himself he felt pretty good.

Slowly, Josh turned his head towards the beautiful driver behind the wheel, and although his heart still tried to fly out of his chest everytime he locked eyes with her, the teenager felt extremely at peace with the idea that Debby and him were just friends. And again, he smiled, because Debby was focused on the road, causing her mouth to stay slightly open. She looked cute. Very cute.

Josh turned his gaze away from her. He couldn't think of her like that, not right now. Being friends was the best thing that could happen to them for now. They both needed to forget what had happened between them and let their romantic relationship go for a while, because they both were in dire need of friends to be by their side. Josh didn't clearly rule out the possibility of them getting back together, that was for sure, but for now they had to learn how to trust each other again.

Talking about trust, Josh's mind wandered to the first person he trusted fully: Tyler. His best friend. Ha, it felt so good to say that, Josh thought, not only because he hadn't been able to say that in a while, but also because for once, the boy had the complete and utter belief that this feeling of friendship was directed towards the good person. If soul mates existed, Josh was pretty sure they could only be friends, and that meant Tyler was the one.

"Josh? Hello?"

Josh snapped out of his maze-like thinking and looked at Debby, realizing at the same time that the girl had pulled over in his driveway. Debby laughed, the sound echoing deliciously in the tiny closed space of the car.

"I said: do you want me to pick you up tomorrow?" Debby asked with a smile, slightly rolling her eyes at the boy's inattention.

Josh smile, his cheeks reddening just a tiny bit. "Yeah, that would be great, thanks!" Debby nodded in acknowledgement while the boy grabbed his backpack and hurried out of the car. Both of them waved their goodbyes and, a few minutes later, Debby was gone and Josh was daydreaming again, from the comfort of the family couch.

Some time had passed since Debby and him had agreed to be friends. Almost two weeks, actually. Josh hadn't felt so great in a long long time. Oh, he still had "episodes" from time to time, where he felt more than ordinary and the thoughts of the people around him were almost unbearable. The only thing that differed now was that Josh actually had someone to talk to about his "super powers" - like Tyler called them. The boy had proved to be a really good moral support, and they had even tried a few "seances" - Tyler's word again. And that was the weird part: out of all people, the only one that knew about Josh's magical abilities was the only person that didn't seem to have an effect on him. Josh simply couldn't feel him.

Why? Not that he wanted to, no. That would have felt like an invasion of Tyler's privacy and it would make the both of them extremely uncomfortable. But Josh still wondered why his powers couldn't work on Tyler, because that surely meant there was a way to stop this. And if Josh could figure out what it was in Tyler that managed to stop the incessant wave of feelings floating around and into his own mind, then maybe...

"Josh? Hello?"

Josh blinked a few times before his eyes finally focused on his brother's hands waving right before his face. "What?" he said, moving back a little. Whoa, second time it happened today. Josh really needed to learn how to focus on what was happening around him.

Jordan shrugged, plopping down on the couch next to his brother and grabbing the remote control to turn on the tv. "I asked what you were doing," he simply said, flicking through the channels.